Two Lankans interrogated in Geneva

Two suspicious looking Tamil civilians who were caught filming outside the Sri Lankan Consulate were interrogated by the Diplomatic Police of Geneva yesterday.

The 30 year old woman who lives in Switzerland claimed to have come to the Consulate, housed in the Permanent Mission, to renew her passport. She was accompanied by a 27-year-old youth, a resident of Italy. They were apprehended by alert Consulate staff and were handed over for questioning to the Diplomatic Police of Geneva on Friday.

Their camcorder contained footage of both outside the building and public areas just outside the Consulate.

The Consulate has obtained copies of the relevant pages of their passports and other documents. The Diplomatic Police of Geneva are conducting further inquiries.

The Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the United Nations Office at Geneva in their press release stated that, the incident took place while the Sri Lankan Minister for Disaster Management and Human Rights Mahinda Samarasinghe was in Geneva to brief Ambassadors and a top UN human rights official on the latest efforts undertaken by the Government of Sri Lanka regarding human rights.